rachel @ typed truths

A Daring Pursuit by Kate Bateman

A Daring Pursuit by Kate Bateman

Carys Davies is doing everything in her power to avoid marriage. Staying single is the only way to hide the secret that could ruin her—and her family—if it was revealed. For the past two seasons she’s scandalized the ton with her outrageous outfits and brazen ways in a futile bid to deter potential suitors. Outwardly confident and carefree, inside she’s disillusioned with both men and love. There’s only one person who’s never bought her act—the only man who makes her heart race: Tristan Montgomery, one of her family’s greatest… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Blackmail
Gun violence
War themes
Animal cruelty

The White Girl by Tony Birch

The White Girl by Tony Birch

Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism including the Stolen Generations
Antisemitism mentioned
Rape
Graphic suicide
Death of a parent
Death of a spouse
Disappearance of a relative
Explosion
Colonialism
Animal death

A Treacherous Trade by Kerrigan Byrne

A Treacherous Trade by Kerrigan Byrne

Fiona Mahoney stands in the ashes of her hopes facing her tempting adversary, Inspector Grayson Croft. Her sins are about to spill from her lips, when he says the one thing that could dispel all thoughts of revelation or redemption. Someone is leaving the corpses of sex workers in the streets, and a name is being whispered in the fearful shadows. The name against which Fiona would sell her very soul for vengeance. Jack the Ripper.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Misogyny
Sexual assault
Necrophilia mentioned
Violence against and death of sex workers
Blood & gore depiction
Death of a child recounted
Death of a friend recounted
Murder
Poisoning
Kidnapping & captivity

Murder on Mustique by Anne Glenconner

Murder on Mustique by Anne Glenconner

Mustique is in a state of breathless calm as tropical storm Cristobal edges towards it across the Atlantic. Most villa owners have escaped the island but a few young socialites remain, unwilling to let summer’s partying end. American heiress Amanda Fortini is one such thrill-seeker – until she heads out for a morning swim and doesn’t return. Detective Sergeant Solomon Nile is just 28 years old and the island’s only fully trained police officer. He quickly realises he needs to contact Lord and Lady Blake, who bought the island decades ago and have invested time, money and love creating a paradise. Jasper is in St Lucia… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Alcohol consumption
Drug use mentioned
Graphic dead bodies
Death of a friend
Murder
Gun violence
Kidnapping
Fire

Lost in Amber by Maz Maddox

Lost in Amber by Maz Maddox

Being alive for millions of years means I’m rarely surprised. In the long expanse of my existence, I’ve been rescuing fossils for only a breath. During that time, my path has crossed with many different people — shifter and human alike. Some friendly, some nefarious. A hundred years ago, one such man graced me with his presence. He was one of the few to have almost killed me. Imagine my surprise when I see him again, buying the rarest amber fossil to have ever been discovered. Precious. Beautiful. Unique. A true treasure millions of years in the making. I won’t let him get away again.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Blood depiction
Death of a partner recounted
Gun violence

When the Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson

When the Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson

At night, in Huda’s fragrant garden, a breeze sweeps in from the desert encircling Baghdad, rustling the leaves of her apricot trees and carrying warning of visitors at her gate. Huda, a secretary at the Australian embassy, lives in fear of the mukhabarat—the secret police who watch and listen for any scrap of information that can be used against America and its allies. They have ordered her to befriend Ally Wilson, the deputy ambassador’s wife. Huda has no wish to be an informant, but fears for her teenaged son, who may be forced to join a deadly militia. Nor does she know that Ally has dangerous secrets of her own… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Misogyny
Rape mentioned
Death of a parent recounted
Murder
Gun violence
War themes

Harsh Times by Mario Vargas Llosa

Harsh Times by Mario Vargas Llosa

Guatemala, 1954. The military coup perpetrated by Carlos Castillo Armas and supported by the CIA topples the government of Jacobo Árbenz. Behind this violent act is a lie passed off as truth, which forever changes the development of Latin America: the accusation by the Eisenhower administration that Árbenz encouraged the spread of Soviet Communism in the Americas. Harsh Times is a story of international conspiracies and conflicting interests in the time of the Cold War, the echoes of which are still felt today.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Misogyny
Child abandonment
Adult-minor relationship
Murder
Torture
Gun violence

Diamond Fire by Ilona Andrews

Diamond Fire by Ilona Andrews

Catalina Baylor is looking forward to wearing her maid-of-honor dress and watching her older sister walk down the aisle. Then the wedding planner gets escorted off the premises, the bride’s priceless tiara disappears, and Rogan’s extensive family overruns his mother’s home. Someone is cheating, someone is lying, and someone is plotting murder. To make this wedding happen, Catalina will have to do the thing she fears most: use her magic. But she’s a Baylor and there’s nothing she wouldn’t do for her sister’s happiness. Nevada will have her fairy tale wedding, even if Catalina has to tear the mansion apart brick by brick to get it done.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Classism
Loss of autonomy (mind control)
Poisoning

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Widely regarded as the precursor of the modern mystery and suspense novels, The Moonstone tells of the events surrounding the disappearance of a mysterious (and cursed) yellow diamond. T. S. Eliot called it ‘the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels’. It contains a number of ideas which became common tropes of the genre, including a crime being investigated by talented amateurs who happen to be present when it is committed, and two police officers who exemplify respectively the ‘Scotland Yard bungler’ and the skilled, professional detective.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Substance addiction
Suicide
Recreational drug use
Murder
Colonialism

The Cove by Alice Clark-Platts

The Cove by Alice Clark-Platts

Welcome to Turtle Cove. A luxury resort surrounded by pristine sea and the dense beauty of the jungle, it is the perfect escape from the stresses of life and work. For couples Lou and Adam, Eliza and Noah, a few days spent relaxing on the beach, while their kids are happily distracted, is exactly what they need. But appearances can be deceiving. There’s a strange tension brewing at the resort, with relations between the hotel and the locals threatening to spill over into violence. This is nothing though compared to the strained atmosphere between the two families. They haven’t been friends for long and they are starting to realise they… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Parental abandonment mentioned
Child neglect recounted
Spousal and parental infidelity mentioned
Suicide, on-page
Alcohol consumption & abuse, on-page
Recreational drug use
Minor physical injury including mentions of burns
COVID-19 pandemic mentioned (epilogue)
Graphic dead bodies
Death of a husband
Death of a father recounted
Death of a mother from suicide by hanging recounted
Murder
Disappearance of a spouse & child
Explosion
Gun violence mentioned
Fire
Animal death mentioned (wild pig, fish)
Mentions of cruel animal hunting practices
Discussions of loss of business/livelihoods and traditional ways of life due to climate change